SJV schools to join new league

Tuesday

May 14, 2013 at 9:36 PMMay 14, 2013 at 9:37 PM

New league with 10 teams formed

Gary Baker

After months of talk, a new 10-team athletic conference is now a reality.

The formation of the Berrien-Cass-St. Joseph (B-C-S) Athletic Conference was announced at the Bronson Board of Education meeting Monday night. The board approved Bronson's membership of the B-C-S Conference, which officially begins with the 2014-2015 school year.

This means one more year for the St. Joseph Valley Conference — which fell to four teams in 2008 — when Schoolcraft and Constantine left for the Kalamazoo Valley Association (KVA) and Battle Creek St. Philip and Colon bolted for the Southern Central Athletic Association (SCAA), leaving Bronson, Centreville, Mendon and White Pigeon on their own.

"We've been in talks with a lot of different leagues for a long time," Bronson Athletic Director Jean LaClair said. "A lot of schools that have set leagues don't want to add other schools."

The B-C-S will include the four SJV schools — Bronson, Centreville, Mendon and White Pigeon — as well as Lakeland Conference schools Niles-Brandywine, Bridgman, Buchanan and Cassopolis in addition to the Red Arrow Conference schools New Buffalo and Lake Michigan Catholic.

The Lakeland Conference became four teams after Coloma, Berrien Springs and Edwardsburg departed for the Wolverine Conference this year and the Red Arrow also fell to four teams.

Bronson had shown interest in joining the Big Eight Conference for sometime, and was a member of the Little C Conference years ago — prior to its demise in the early 1970s. The biggest hurdle for Bronson will be travel, as the travel to the non-SJV schools are over 60 miles one way.

"It will take some creative scheduling on our part," LaClair said. "Maybe a Friday or a Saturday date here and there."

Bronson is in for a minimum two-year commitment, and the plan calls for two divisions for football.

One division includes Bronson, Brandywine, Buchanan, Cassopolis and Mendon. The other division will include Bridgman, Centreville, New Buffalo, White Pigeon and Lake Michigan Catholic. There would be four division games and a cross over in football (New Buffalo), with White Pigeon, Centreville and Quincy balancing out the schedule for the Vikings.

For all other sports, there will be two divisions.

The East includes Bronson, Cassopolis, Centreville, White Pigeon and Mendon.

The West includes Buchanan, Brandywine, Bridgman, New Buffalo and Lake Michigan Catholic.

Both Bronson and Mendon had a choice to join the league or go independent, as both White Pigeon and Centreville were committed to leaving the SJV and joining the B-C-S.

LaClair said the competition will be on-par with what Bronson has seen in the past, and their could be some benefits depending on the sport. The wrestling program will benefit, seeing more conference matches than they currently do in the SJV — as there have been only three teams in the last two years.

Going independent was basically not an option for Bronson, as the scheduling and travel would have been even worse on the athletes, parents and administrators. LaClair noted that it would be nearly impossible to have a Friday basketball game, as nearly all conferences play league games on Fridays.

"If we didn't join, traveling would be twice what it is going to be," LaClair said. "Going independent would have been tough on the kids and the parents."